[Harford20]

There has been some great discussion regarding the MP&Co sets. I have been researching these sets with regards specifically to Ted Williams. This has kind of been a "passion" of mine as these cards are often felt to be of lesser quality. I have discovered several points that seem to hold true.

1. As TedZan noted, the 1943 front version seems to consistently have a darker sky and lighter colored backstop

2. The 1949 front version is very light blue, with the backstop color almost the same as the sky

3. The ink colors for the backs varied greatly for example (using Ted Williams):
a. The 1943 back versions for Ted come in both a black and dark blue ink. These are very distinctive when held in your hand side-by-side
b. For Ted, there were several spelling errors in both the 1943 and 1949 versions,
i. Including his first name “THEORDORE” vs “THEODORE” on the 1943
ii. Several spelling errors on the 1949, “THEORORE” vs “THEODORE” and in the middle name “FRANCES” vs “FRANCIS”
c. The 1949 back ink was only noted in black to my knowledge (based on Ted Williams)

4. The 1943 versions had the “M. P. & Co., N.Y.C.” at the bottom whereas this was removed for the 1949 version cards

5. The 1949 MP&Co had both a “numbered” version and a “no number” version for many cards. I have seen many PSA/SGC labeled cards with 1943 on the flip when the card is actually a 1949 no number version.

6. The paragraph formation of the 1943 and 1949 sets varied; esp how the player name and position was listed

The photos below illustrate most all of these variations. I own nearly all of these variations for Ted Williams, with the exception the 1943 blue ink back “Theordore”. All my cards are either PSA of SGC graded, from SGC/PSA Authentic x2, PSA1, PSA2.5, PSA5 x2, SGC 5.5.

Please, if there are further discussions on Ted I would love to hear about them. I cannot say what other cards of either set would hold to these "Ted Williams Rules".

Thanks for reading,
Dave